PCC’s Response to HMICFRS PEEL Legitimacy Inspection

As part of its annual PEEL inspection, HMICFRS assessed how legitimate Cumbria Constabulary is at keeping people safe and reducing crime. For the areas of legitimacy the inspection looked at this year, their overall judgment is ‘good’. The constabulary is good at treating all of the people it serves with fairness and respect. It is also good at how well it ensures its workforce behaves ethically and lawfully and, following improvement, is now good at treating its workforce with fairness and respect.

Responding to the Report, Peter McCall said: “This is another great report on Cumbria Police by HMICFRS, who assessed the constabulary as ‘good’ overall, and did not identify any causes of concern.I am pleased also, that Inspectors recognised where the constabulary had made improvements from last year.I believe that this recognises quite rightly the hard work and commitment demonstrated by Police Officers, PCSOs and police staff doing a difficult job to keep us safe. Despite real pressures on demand and resource, Cumbria Police continue to provide excellent service and deserve credit for this.

“Overall I am pleased with the findings, but am not complacent. I will continue to hold the Constabulary to account in all areas of their performance at my regular meetings, and there is always more to do.HMICFRS confirms that Cumbria Police do an excellent job keeping us safe and I wish to publicly congratulate the Chief Constable, our police officers, PCSOs and staff on this well-deserved report.”

Cumbria Constabulary’s Assistant Chief Constable Mark Webster said:

“The findings of the report reflect well on the Constabulary and the hard work which goes into making sure Cumbria is protected and people are kept safe.

“The Cumbria report acknowledges that the Constabulary is good at treating all the people we serve with fairness and respect whilst, in the national report, Cumbria Constabulary is recognised for four separate pieces of best practice – more than any other force.

“Where there are recommendations for improvement, these do come with the recognition that progress is already being made in those area.

“The inspectors have expressed a desire for greater use of body-worn video. This desire is shared by our own officers and, as a result, the Constabulary is to equip all front-line uniform officers with personal issue body-worn video cameras. The plan is to roll this out in early 2018.

“Whilst the report is overwhelmingly positive, I can assure the public that we will continue to seek to improve the way we work to ensure we continue to offer a high level of service to the public.”